I am your dog, and I have a little something I would like to whisper in your
ear.

I know that you humans lead busy lives. Some have to work. Some have
children to raise. It always seems like you are running here and there,
often much too fast, often never noticing the truly grand things in life.

Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See, the way my
dark brown eyes look at yours. They are slightly cloudy now. That comes with
age. The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle.

You smile at me; I see love in your eyes. What do you see in mine? Do you
see a spirit? A soul inside, who loves you as no other could in the world? A
spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior wrongdoing for just a
simple moment of your time?

That is all I ask. To slow down, if even for a few minutes to be with me.

So many times, you have been saddened by the words you read on that screen,
of other of my kind, passing. Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly,
sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat. Sometimes,
we age so slowly before your eyes that you may not even seem to know until
the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded
eyes. Still the love is always there, even when we must take that long
sleep, to run free in a distant land.

I may not be here next week. Someday you will shed the water from your
eyes, that humans have when deep grief fills their souls, and you will be
angry at yourself that you did not have just "One more day" with me. Because
I love you so, your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me. We have NOW,
together.

So come, sit down here next to me on the floor, and look deep into my eyes.
What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I,
heart to heart. Come to me not as "alpha" or as "trainer" or even "Mom or
Dad," come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep
into another's eyes, and talk.

I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may
tell you something profound about myself or even life in general. You
decided to have me in your life because you wanted a soul to share such
things with.

Someone very different from you, and here I am.

I am a dog, but I am alive. I feel emotion, I feel physical senses, and I
can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls. I do not think of you
as a "Dog on two feet"- I know what you are. You are human, in all of your
quirkiness, and I love you still.

Now, come sit with me on the floor. Enter my world, and let time slow down
if only for 15 minutes. Look deep into my eyes, and whisper to my ears.
Speak with your heart, with your joy and I will know your true self.